The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-07-07
EXCAVATIONS AT SUSA.
wonderful Discoveries in the Ancient Cap
ital of Darius-A Notable Enterprise.


OF one of the workmen al at once laid
bare bed of queer wLite-colored ma
terials which looked like agglOmerated
concrete. Heaven be praised, One
side of these parallelopipeds was coated
with colored enamel.
The trench was directed parallel with
the facade of the palace, and the me
thodical excavation continued for
about 200 feet, with breadth of 26
feet. One month later we were able
to put together on the floor of our tent
the enamels composing magnificent
lions in low relief, each measuring six
feet in height and over eleven feet from
the tip of the nose to the end of the
tail. The animal stands out against
q turquoise blue background; the body
IS white, the head surrounded by a
sort Of green victorine. the mus tache
blue and yellow, the tlanks white, the
belly blue.
To the right of the room it was easy
to see that there was an interruption
in the deposit of enamelled debris, in
dicating the position of a vast entrance;
finally the position of the bricks, and
of the unbaked clay walls against
which they were fixed, showed that the
lions, nine in number, had crowned q
pylon and had fallen on to the paved
floor Of the court, breaking the tiles
situated below the enamelled bricks,
and leaving intact those which had not
borne the shock of the wall. Mixed
up with the bricks we found a skeleton
crushed by the fall of the masonry, a
Ianarvellous opal seal which once be-
longed to XerXes, Il cone of carved
ivory, and a thousand utensils.
These discoveries were the most i'm
portant of the whole campaign. The
east trenches, however, gave us some
entirely new information about the
ancient Notifications, and furnished
2 contingent of various objects, such
as spear-heads, tear bottles. bronze
and terra-cotta lamps, engraved stones,
bronze coins, and a series of funeral
urns arranged in files, and often one
row on the top of another.
The excavations alongside the py-
lones enabled US to find the base of the
surrounding wall and a fortified door
This opening was based, contrary to
the usage, on teTra-cOtta foundations
Never, since the beginning of the eX-
cations, had we met with an ancient
wall built with similar materials, and
Heaven knows how anXiously we had
sought for such a precious guide
Monsieur DieulafoY thought at once of
the palace of Darius, destroyed, ac-
cording to the account of ArtaXerXes
Muemon, in the reign of his great an
cestor-a palace of which the pave
afsset had been found atanother point.
- was not mistaken. All our efforts
We're then concentrated on this part of
the excavations, and soon our work
nien succeeded in taking our frag-
ment by fragment, the frieze of arch
ers, which in a few months the public
~ II be able to admire in the Louvre
Museum.
The bricks composing this frieze,
unlike those of the lion, did not affect
the form of parallelopipedS. They
were flat and square, and made of a
kind Of concrete combining the white
ness of plaster with the hardness of
stone. The subject painted on the
edge and treated with minute care was
very difficult to recompose. One day
we discovered a hand, the next day a
foot with a golden boot finally the
enamels became abundant, and we
were able, aided by the continuity of
the subject and by the way it was cut
ont into rectangular sections, to recon-
stitute a parsonage forming part of Il
bass-relief representing a procession
of archers.
The warriors are figured in profile
and marching; on their shoulders rest
bow and an immense quiver; they
carry JaVeHn terminating in a silver
pOmegTanatc. The yestments are all
cut after the same pattern. They are
composed of a robe slit in front, of
short shirt with long sleeves, drawn
in round the waist by a belt, and a
round Jacket closed over the breast.
A rich band OF ornament trims the hem
OF the garments. The stufls are differ
ent. Some are golden yellow en-
broidered with blue and green daisies;
others have a white ground, and bear
on a black escutcheon a picture of the
citadel OF SuSa; sometimes the robes
are white, and covered with flowers
and stars set off by a black back
ground; the shirt is black or yellow;
tae boots gold or blue. The archers
are crowned with a green torsade, and
bedecked with gold earrings and
bracelets. Their skin is black; the
eyes are drawn as if they were seen
full face; the nose is arched; the lips
thin, and narrowly edged with car
mine The curled beard is relatively
short; the hair is curly only at the end.
The cunciform inscriptions on the
enamel, which concern the archers,
still contain, in spite of their mutila-
ton, the name of darius King" in
Persian, in Median, and in Assyrian,
and the following characteristic phrase:
"Otana mama parsa" Ca Persian by the
name of Otanes). These fragments
are very precious, for, i'll the absence
Of more precise archaeological infor-
nation, they suffice to date the monu-
ment.
The anthropological studies of Pro-
fassor Houssay on the present inhabi-
tants of Susiana, and the examination,
Of the welI-preserye skeletons discov-
cred in the funeral urns, furthermore
tend to SHOW that within the past
eighteen hundred years the anatomic
characteristics Of the black races have
been continually growing weaker,
though they may still be found III all
the tOwnfolk of Arabistan.
Besides these enamelled faicnces, the
excavations OF the palace of Darius
brought to light fragments of sculpture
on terra-cotta of very peculiar
character. They are neither painted
nor cnamelled: their elementary forms
have entirely lost any conventional
character; and the ensemble of the base
relief is modelled with surprising skill
and ability, although the subjects are
borrowed from the fantastic fauna of
Chald9a. Here it was wild beast
like those which are reproduced on
the bass-reliefs of Persepolis; there ii
was bull represented in profile. and
nevertheless with two divergent horns.
These animals were surrounded by
frieze covered with cuneiform text
engraved by hand on the edge of the
bricks Some of the inscriptions are
in Persian; others, written in Assyrian
curSiye characters. have some con